After being missing from the tracks for a while, Ricky Wilson returned with a stunning new car. We had a few words with him about his time off, and his car.

We had twins, a girl and a boy, and we already had two girls, so I decided to sell up so I wasn’t tempted by a stock car sitting there. I kept an engine and gearbox, and to keep our fingers in we started building a new car. Frankie did the flat chassis, we designed the roll cage and Frankie welded it all up for us. We did the internals on the cage and then everything else. It took us about a year and a half.

The car certainly looks different to the rest.

I think most cars nowadays look like they’re out of a text book, so I wanted something that stood out and was completely different. We originally tried to make it look like a sprint car, but that didn’t seem to look right. To get all the angles of the bonnet right, I’ve used a smaller air filter, and the radiator is mounted lower.

The colour is actually from the Brawn Grand Prix team, if you remember them? It wasn’t really meant to look like a GP car but then we put it against the white chassis and it went from there.

The engine is one I got from Carlos Perez and is what was in my last tarmac car. It’s a small block, but it’s one of the big ones.

The inboard front suspension devised by Ricky and Rob Mitchell.

Apart from the styling, the car has a different setup for the front suspension.

The last time I raced, I did 8 shockers in 8 meetings, and they are over £100 each. I was talking to Rob Mitchell, we talked about him building me a chassis but it never happened, then I asked him about putting inboard shockers on an F1 and he jumped at it! Between us, we came up with this.

It seemed to work at Belle Vue, the car felt right on the times that I got it into the corners properly. We’ll make a few adjustments, there’s lots to play with.

How did it go, the first time out?

I had a few teething problems at Belle Vue. The cab was uncomfortable, and the pedals were in the wrong place, I kept catching the accelerator when I was braking.

Are you sticking to shale, or will we see you on tarmac as well?

I just race for fun. My family and my business come first. I’ll do tarmac if I get in the tarmac semi, but I think tarmac is just too much money at the moment.

Who helps you out with racing?

Big thanks to my wife Rebecca, she’s great, she looks after the kids while I’m out racing. And my team are a big help, they are Dick, Tealy, Forty, Frank, Wolfie, and my dad.